Aldrich, Henry (1647-1710)]

Artis logicae compendium

      Oxford 1704 - Oxford: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1704. 4th Edition. [First published in 1691, with editions in 1692 and 1696, all being one of the two less complete versions described by Howell.] [14]+129+[19]pp. + copper engraved frontis portrait of Aristotle. Signatures: pi1, a, A-M in 6s, N2. 12mo. Contemporary paneled calf boards, crudely rebacked in the mid-20th century. Front & rear flyleaves defective; pocket removed from rear paste-down; recto of a6 quite dirty; staining (including some old mold-stain) to a1, a6, and N1; last two leaves lightly browned; still, a decent copy, although inappropriately rebacked. With the 18th century signature and bookplate to the front paste-down of William Wynne Esq. of the Inner Temple. Howell notes that there were two distinct versions of the early editions, a short & a long form. This fourth edition, the last edition published in Aldrich's lifetime, appears to be the first edition to combine both versions, and thus the first complete edition. It contains a 12 page Praefatio discussing the history of logic through the Scholastics; added sections on method (pp. 99-102) and the use of logic (pp. 102-129); an unpaginated 17 page Conclusio discussing recent contributions to logic from Lull on, including the Port Royal Logic. All the early editions are now scarce. W. S. Howell Eighteenth Century British Logic and Rhetoric (Princeton UP, 1971), pp. 42-60; Andrew Pyle Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers I, pp. 11-12. Weight: 5.1 ounces = 144 grams. Size: 6.2 x 3.7 x 0.6 inches = 15.5 x 9.2 x 1.5cm. A Churchman, scholar, composer, and architect at Oxford in the latter half of the 17th century, Aldrich was Dean of Christ Church from 1689 until his death, and vice chancellor of Oxford in 1692. His Artis logicae compendium was a widely used textbook into the 1860s. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, translated it into English in 1750. Henry Mansel edited an edition with numerous notes and references in 1849. It "took the place of Sanderson's similar treatise in the study of logical theory at Oxford and elsewhere, and because it not only carried the outlines of Aristotelian doctrine across the years between 1691 and 1825 in England, but it also provided the inspiration for the tremendous increase in the popularity of Peripatetic logic among English logicians of the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Thus it has an importance that contradicts the expectations created by its small size, its condensed style, and its status as a textbook for college undergraduates" [Howell p. 42].